Bacterial surface proteins of gram-positive bacteria are known to be important during the infection process since they mediate bacterial attachment to host tissues, and/or interact with the host immune system. For example, in the gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, several of these proteins have been well characterized and were found to bind extracellular matrix proteins such as collagen, fibronectin, fibrinogen, as well as immunoglobulin G. These binding proteins include fibronectin binding proteins such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,175,096; 5,320,951; 5,416,021; 5,440,014; 5,571,514; 5,652,217; 5,707,702; 5,789,549; 5,840,846; 5,980,908; and 6,086,895; fibrinogen binding proteins such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,008,341 and 6,177,084; and collagen binding proteins as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,851,794 and 6,288,214; all of these patents incorporated herein by reference.
Previous studies have shown that the collagen and fibronectin binding proteins have been shown to contribute to the virulence of S. aureus in animal models. In addition, immunization of mice with certain of these binding protein has been shown in some cases to provide protection from septic death due to S. aureus. However, in some cases, certain formulations based on bacterial proteins from specific gram-positive bacteria such as S. aureus were not always effective in treating patients, and moreover these formulations will generally be species specific and thus do not generally afford protection against infection from a variety of gram-positive bacteria. Accordingly, it is very important to develop ways of locating surface proteins which will be utilized effectively in methods of treating or preventing infection, and in particular it is highly desirable to develop methods of treatment which can be utilized in a broad-based application to treat or prevent a wide variety of infections caused by gram-positive bacteria.